From the Floors Up

How to Reburish Your Cabinets

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Refinishing cabinets can save homeowners a lot of money during a redesign. By doing the cabinets yourself, you can create the custom look you desired without dropping loads of cash. Plus, the process of refurbishing is quick and easy.

Label The Doors

To avoid future confusion, label which door belongs with which cabinet by assigning numbers. Rip off a piece of tape and write the number with a permanent marker. Door one belongs with cabinet one and vice-versa.

Fill Holes with Wood Putty

This step is optional depending on whether or not you are planning on using the original hardware. If you decide to buy new hardware, fill the original holes with wood putty.

Sand The Wood

Begin by lightly sanding the wood surface to remove any remaining sheen.

Prime Coat The Cabinets

Invest in a quality primer for this project. If you are using a darker paint on your cabinets, buy a tinted primer. If you are painting a lighter color on the cabinets, you will apply fewer coats of paint and primer.

Rent an HVLP Paint Sprayer (Optional)

HVLP paint sprayers can be rented at your local home improvement stores and help with the overall quality and professional look of your cabinets. This sprayer helps avoid streak marks caused by an unsteady hand.

Use a Jig

Mark with a jig where you want your new hardware to be on the cabinet.

Reinstall Doors

You will need to match the doors with the numbers from before, and we are in business.

Apply Touch-ups

Basic touch-ups can be done after installation.

Place Hardware

By now, you should have decided whether or not you want to use your previous hardware or new hardware. New hardware allows you to add your personal touch to the piece. Consider playing around with different sizes and shapes to add character.

Protect with Felt Door Dampers

These help to protect the doors from everyday use. We encourage you to place them on to protect your recently refurbished cabinets.

Revamping your cabinets will add character to the room. Whether you are restoring the kitchen or the bathroom, it is an inexpensive but charismatic look for all budgets.

Building a House…I Wish I Had Thought of That! (Part Two)

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Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 10.36.28 AMAs promised we have added more helpful tips that will hopefully keep you from saying “I wish I had thought of that!”

  • Bathroom: I wish I had thought of this one…when designing your cabinets for your bathrooms, think about longer drawers and fewer cabinets. The storage in drawers can be so efficient. Adding draw organizers is sure to make anyone happy!
  • Rounded Corners: Round corners create a smooth custom look throughout your home, which is sometimes easy to miss when you’re thinking about the design of your home.
  • Wall Texture: have you ever noticed the wall texture on homes that you have visited? Some are rough, others a little textured (referred to as knocked down), and then there is smooth. Think about the style of your home and remember there are options when it comes to wall texture.
  • Screen Shot 2013-05-06 at 1.30.12 PMHardwood or Ceramic Floors: You don’t have to pick one or the other, you can have both! Combining wood floors and ceramic adds texture and style to any home. Just remember that the transition from one material to another can make or break a design. Make sure you have a clear-cut line between the two rooms; adding a border in the wood creates a very clean look.
  • Basement Ceiling:  The average basement ceiling is 8 to 9 feet tall. To make your basement feel more open and like the rest of your house consider 10-foot ceilings. You will pay a little more but at the end you will be happy you did it!
  • Interior Doors:  Solid 8-foot wood doors throughout your home will make a statement. Larger doors bring a custom feel to your home that you will enjoy for years to come.

Building a house takes a lot of time and planning. Try to put things in perspective and prioritize what is important to you and your family.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Megan for spending her time and sharing her home building insight!

Glass Pendants in the Kitchen

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Lighting takes on a number of different roles in the kitchen. It can be task lighting for chopping and preparing food, or ambient lighting for dinners at the island counter.  Pretty glass pendants make this functional lighting feel special.  Pendant lights combined with recessed lighting and lighting under the cabinets creates a well-rounded lighting plan for every kitchen task.

These glass pendant lights over the island look to be hand-blown.  Their warm color shifts between creams to a deep amber, casting a warm light over the island through the glass and a strong, clear light directly below.  They also add a nice spot of color in a neutral kitchen.

White cabinets and dark ebony stained wood floors are great bones in this traditional kitchen. Adding color with the lighting is a nice way to introduce it into the room while keeping the main elements neutral.  The yellow tones of the glass look wonderful with the cream and black. The sunny yellow accents really warm up the kitchen, as well.

Mixing the handcrafted, almost contemporary style of the glass pendant lights breaks up the traditional feeling of the kitchen.  Adding a few handmade or handcrafted design elements like these glass pendants makes the kitchen feel a bit more eclectic and personalized.  Traditional style pendant lights or vintage schoolhouse style pendants would also work in this kitchen.  Green metal shades or black shades would look great with the cream and black elements of the kitchen.  Whatever style you choose, pendant lights over the kitchen island can be the perfect solution for lighting up this essential workspace.

Nooks and Crannies

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Finding extra storage in our homes is something we all struggle with.  We do like our stuff, so much so that there are television shows about storage locker auctions and hoarding. Decluttering is something we could all probably do. And the New Year is a great time to go through our homes and try to organize and declutter our spaces. Taking it room by room, closet by closet and shelf by shelf can make the task seem less daunting.  Even our kitchen cabinets need to be sorted through and decluttered at least once a year.

Once you’ve cleaned out your space, finding storage for what you have left can still be a challenge.  Cabinets and bookshelves are the go to places to store the objects of our lives.  Baskets and bins on the floor are other popular options.  Built-in cabinets and shelves are a more permanent option for additional storage in living and bedrooms. All of these storage options can provide you with standard storage in most rooms of your home.

Additional storage spaces can be created if you think outside the box, or shelf as it were.  Think about wall mounted inset medicine cabinets that keep products off the counter and floor. These cabinets use the gaps between the wall studs as additional storage space in the bathroom. This idea can work in other areas of the home too.  Nooks and crannies can be created out of the space under the stairs or in walls in a family or playroom.

Think creatively and you just might find a bit more extra storage in your home.

Let Your Small Kitchen Sparkle

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When a small kitchen sits to one side of an open living space, the general tendency is to hide it with neutrals. This kitchen breaks that rule and the design decision works.

Red cabinets grab and hold the eye when you first look at this kitchen, but there’s more happening than red. White, silver and green with touches of yellow also help this kitchen to stand out.

The extensive use of white keeps the red cabinets from overwhelming the space. White and silver are the only other tones that play permanent roles in the space, and silver is the unifying element. If you count, there are nine stainless features in this kitchen, scattered throughout, particularly around the boundaries.

Ebony wood flooring always works well with a contemporary environment. Its rich dark tones support the other color choices while grounding the room. This choice will also work well in the rest of the living space due to its versatility and automatic style.

The plant styles and positions are cleverly planned to add another color and also as a connecting feature. At first glance, the vases of greens above the sink appear to be an image or perhaps a tile backsplash. In reality, they are real plants set in an opening over the sink. The consistency of size, material and spacing turn houseplants into art. You can do the same thing if you use the same vases or pots and space them evenly.

Altogether, this kitchen invites you to cook, despite its small space. What can you do to your own kitchen – of any size – to add to its warmth and charm?

 

 

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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